The Ship

An anchor lands in my stomach
Holding it's ship tightly in place,
The ship then goes on to plumage
And soon a blank stare captures my face,
The ship travels to my brain
To recall the memories I contain,
I remember picking you up
And twirling you down,
I remember the smile on your face
I successfully replaced that frown,
I remember my mother leaving
And seizing the opportunity,
I remember nature trying to disrupt us
But it wasn't strong enough to stop you and me.
The ship pulls these out
So that I don't stop trying,
To fight for it to work
And to keep it from dying,
Now the anchor is loosening
The ship did its job,
It's time to stop circling
And yank the bandaid of the scab,
Our business is unfinished
You know that too,
I miss your tender kiss
I miss you

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”